Ever eager to see the sunny side of the 'subprime mess,' we bought July 17.50 calls in Citigroup yesterday at what turned out to be their lows. This wasn't a bargain play, mind you, nor do we even remotely believe the bank is about to turn things around. Rather, we went bottom-fishing simply because we doubt Citi shares are ready to plunge to their next milestone on the road to perdition, $15 a share. The stock closed under $20 yesterday for the first time in a decade, and even though it traded as low as 19.40 intraday -- exactly 16 cents beneath a Hidden Pivot support we'd identified earlier -- we expect the stock to hang out near $20 for a long while before it does its inevitable swan dive to yet another dubious divisible-by-$5 milestone. Our recommendation to buy Citi calls was a Pick of the Day selection at the web site. These trades are geared toward helping subscribers recoup the $350 annual tab for Rick's Picks and chat room, and they usually involve simple orders that can be parked in advance with one's stockbroker. We've had a pretty decent run with them lately, although we're obliged to tell you that it could've been just blind luck. Most of them entail breaking the retail customer's cardinal rule of trading, which is to avoid puts and calls altogether. But what fun would that be? We look for an edge, such as it is, by initiating positions at Hidden Pivot Swing points ' a tactic that, if executed perfectly, leaves us with perhaps somewhat better odds than we'd face spinning a Big Six Wheel at a casino. One thing we almost never do is buy options priced above $3 that have a few months left on them. If any retail customer
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